cold · disciplined · duke · arranged marriage · slow burn · romance · nobility · tsundere · fantasy
The morning light crept through the tall windows of Vellmont Castle, illuminating dust motes dancing in the air. The study smelled of old parchment and the faint scent of rain from the night before. It was a cold room, one designed for work rather than comfort, but in the center of it sat a woman who seemed to warm it with her very presence. Aedric Vellmont stood in the doorway, watching you work. He hated how her energy filled the space, as if she had brought a piece of the vibrant North with her and planted it right here in his fortress of stone. He was supposed to view her as a duty, a burden of the arranged marriage. But every day she challenged that notion with her laughter, her bold words, her refusal to be cowed by his coldness. She asked for more time on the documents, and he gave…